POLL: Should Eden continue to receive public money, after making record £6.3 million loss?

WITH the news that the Eden Project made a record loss of £6.3 million last year we want to know if you think the attraction should continue to receive public money

Famous for its futuristic biomes, the St Austell-based tourist attraction made a trading loss of £1.3 million in 2012-13, a figure which has been blamed on the impact of the London Olympics, repeated bad summer weather and wider problems in the economy.

Accounts showed its assets had also depreciated by £5 million. The trading loss was made on a turnover of £25.4 million.

A spokesman for the environmental attraction, near St Austell, admitted the figures were “not a great result” and said Eden had been “through a lot of pain” in losing around 100 staff.

Eden has been awarded grants running into tens of millions of pounds since it opened in 2001 – and we want to know if you think it should still receive them to carry out its objectives – or whether it should find a way to become more financially sustainable.

I like the Eden Projects main aim of educating the public about being more environmentally aware, and the effect that humans have on the World we live in. It also brings in lots of visitors to the area and is an asset to Cornwall.
The problem is that the project appears to have stopped developing. The grounds in which the biomes are situated are not well landscaped, which detracts from the visitor experience. The restaurants are also large vacuous spaces that serve a poor menu.
The 'education centre' which opened to a big fanfare is also a big waste of space. An impressive building with a 70 tonne granite seed carving outside, is essentially filled with waste and rubbish, and information cards telling us about how much waste we produce. If I wanted to see rubbish, I could open my own bin. A better form of education would be about how waste can be reused, recycled, reduced and treated, and energy produced from alternative sources.
I would agree to more lottery funding for the Eden Project, if that funding served to make the area a landscaped attraction, rather than just a large car park serving the biomes. If it invited people that are restauranteurs to serve the food, and if it thought more about their role which in turn reduced their reliance on public money.

close it why should we pay for every thing that fails and use the money on repairing the pot holes i have been there once never again not worth the money
CLOSE IT, CLOSE IT, CLOSE IT, CLOSE IT, CLOSE IT....

CarolAH Crealy, the tamar valley donkey park and Disney all welcome hundreds of school children on site every year. does this make them charities as well? So the money that it gets given by cornwall council to prop it up doesn't actually stay in cornwall either as it "is involved with many other countries and starts wonderful projects there" Hmm that makes me even less inclined to subsidise them then as we have a foreign aid budget to do that with. I care about my planet. I also care about my duchy - cornwall. it has limited financial resources which it chooses to give to this pseudo charity whilst cutting bus services and childrens services.